Weinstein Company & Vivendi ink home entertainment deal

MUMBAI: The Weinstein Company (TWC) and Vivendi Entertainment (VE) have entered into a home entertainment partnership that will make Vivendi Entertainment the exclusive distributor of The Weinstein Company library and grant VE the rights to distribute 20 new direct-to-DVD titles from TWC over the next year.

The Weinstein Company library includes a vast array of titles and brands, as well as feature films such as The Reader, 2009 Oscar nominee for Best Picture featuring Academy Award Best Actress winner Kate Winslet and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, featuring Academy Award Best Supporting Actress winner Penelope Cruz; the Dragon Dynasty series with films featuring Jackie Chan and Jet Li; Dimension Extreme titles including George Romero’s Diary of the Dead, Pulse 2 and 3, Dario Argento’s Mother Of Tears, Hell Ride, presented by Quentin Tarantino, Teeth and many others; classics like El Cid starring Charleton Heston and Sophia Loren, andFall of the Roman Empire; as well as animated classics including The Reef, Tortoise & The Hare, The Blue Elephant, Jerry Lewis’ animated remake of his legendary film The Nutty Professor, and more.

TWC co-chairman Bob Weinstein said, "Vivendi Entertainment is a great place to build our home entertainment library and, in keeping with our plan for the company, develop and increase our catalog business. We have a relationship with Doug Morris going back twenty years and we are thrilled to be putting our library into Vivendi’s hands."

VE president Tom O’Malley added, "It’s a great honor to be partnering with Bob and Harvey. They are both icons in the film industry and having them as partners takes Vivendi Entertainment to a new level. We’re thrilled to be representing their catalog to retailers and are excited about their upcoming slate of direct-to-DVD films."